Butterfly Pavilion

This May we were able to spend a few days in Denver with the kids seeing the sites and hitting up fun places we haven't been to.  Darren was busy taking continuing education classes which meant I had the kids on my own!  

One of the days we hit up the Butterfly Pavilion.  It was so much fun!  The first thing that greeted us was an opportunity to hold Rosie- The tarantula!

I apparently didn't get a good picture of the actual spider.....But she's about to crawl on Brooklyn's hand.

Jace was excited to prove to his sisters he could do it.  And he did.

Abby is a born creature-lover so this is right up her alley.

Colby wasn't cooperating in the picture taking...The kids are in front of a beehive!  You can see the inner workings of what's happening.  With the safety of a piece of plexiglass between us and the bees.   I thought it was amazing.  The kids though it was just ok.

There was a small aquarium.  We found Nemo!

And felt a starfish.

(Finally I get a picture of Colby)

I spent a lot of time picking the little man up so he had a good view.

And through the looking glass you can see us....I think Brooklyn took this on the other side of the aquarium.

And then on to the real butterfly pavilion!

My girls LOVE butterflies (so do my boys, really) so this was extremely exciting and spectacular.

Again, Abby has some knack with insects.  We aren't suppose to pick up the butterflies but what can you do when they come for you (bad boys - just kidding.  I don't really even know the song).  Anyhoo, this bad boy (hahaha) just landed on Abby.  She must have some special scent.

We loved hanging out with the butterflies and will have to go back again!

Brooklyn's Front Tooth

Something exciting is about to happen!  Brooklyn has a very, very loose front tooth. 

She was brave enough to pull it out (or did I?).  I can't remember now...

Oh the shock!  The blood!  It's almost too much.

And now it's over!

Good job Brook!  You look so cute.

Easter 2014

Happy Easter!

We got together with several families again this year to hide and hunt Easter eggs.  We hide the eggs, our kids hunt the eggs, and then we eat a potluck dinner.  Everyone wins.

Brooklyn was determined to be awesome this year.  She did a fine job.

Abby always makes it count.

Jace was able to hang with the big kids this time.

And help his little brother out.  Colby had almost zero interest in finding eggs.  He was more interested in that soccer ball he's carrying around.

Abby found The Golden Egg?!!  (But really, no big prize or anything.  Just awesome.)

Nice work!  

This is our annual Easter Egg Hunt at the park.   Jace hung out with his best bud Will.

Here they are scoping out the scene.  A game plan is a "must" when participating in this free-for-all.

And Jace has that game plan figured out.  He learned quickly that if you run past all of the first eggs to the very end you have better luck.  And no one to fight with.

Abby and Brooklyn came home with a few eggs....which doesn't always happen, by the way.  So we were thrilled!

And Avery and Colby participated but I had the camera and Darren didn't so no pictures of these two hunting!  Darn.  But they did have a good time on the scooters:)

Happy Easter!

2014 Robbins Cruise

Caribbean Cruise

Darren and I were lucky enough to join some of Darren's family in going to the Caribbean in March.  We missed having two of his sisters and their husbands join us but still had a great time! 

We at dinner every night together (I'm taking the picture...in the past we've had a server who has been able to snap one of everyone together but this particular cruise seemed to keep our server especially busy.)  I think lobster night was my favorite!!

Formal night.  Or for us that just means taking church clothes that don't wrinkle easily....

Our first excursion was heading to Buck Island on St. Croix to go snorkeling.  And it was some amazing snorkeling!  I somehow managed to be assigned the position of getting our boat back to dock.  Which I did.  (But I was super nervous - ask Darren.  I don't even like having to drive my speedboat at the lake when there are other boats around.  Not to mention having a boat full of tourists below me expecting to get home safe and sound.  Don't worry - they never even knew the risk they were taking:)

 

This is after we docked and I was just happy to be sitting somewhere other than behind the wheel!

While at St. Kitt's we decided to go on a jungle adventure and see the rainforest from an open jeep.

A couple of shots of our ship while heading out on the safari adventure.

Some random pictures as we were heading out -

The Mayor's house

Unique tree - I can't remember what it's called but those leaves have water in them you can drink in case of emergency.  Excellent to know.

Tropical plants

An old church

The flower matches me perfectly

Darren and Amber

More nature

Lisa and Steve, Monique and Steve, Dena and Ed, Darren and Amber

I cannot believe one of my dreams have come true.  I (really Darren) found a real, live starfish on the beach.  I've always wanted to find a starfish. And then take it home.  But these were still alive so only half of the dream was fulfilled.  We threw it back in the ocean.

Darren entertained us by trying to catch a crab.  He spent quite a bit of time in his endeavor but was unsuccessful in the end.  

However, I managed to step directly on top of a pokey little crab with my bare feet on the way back to the ship without any problems.  It was very unpleasant.

Doesn't it look lovely?  

The next pictures are of us (Darren, me, Lisa, and Steve) going through an awesome ropes course.  We had so much fun.  Here I am getting everything tightened up and making sure things are nice and snug.

We're ready to go!

Steve, Lisa, Amber

They had some pretty tricky rope bridges....but not tricky for us:)

Moving on to the single rope bridge....

Trying to get you a view of how high up we are.  It's kind of hard to tell.  So just enjoy the view of my lovely legs.

Canopy

There were also several zip lines and a huge rope swing at the end.   We were the last ones in the group so we took our time and took lots of pictures.

And a snack at the end.  Sugar cane and coconut.

Right after the ropes course we headed off to tube down a river

Steve

You can tell who I am because I'm wearing a purple helmet.

We stopped every once in a while to regroup and have "fun".  Like splashing and joke telling...

Our next stop was Grenada.

We took a ride out to the beach on this catamaran.  

I'll be honest.  The trip out was a bit long and hard on my behind.  There weren't actually seats.  Just cement walkways or bungee like areas to sit on.  But then we hit the beach!

And were set  up for an amazing lunch!

But while we waited.....Darren once again communed with nature.   And began playing with the elusive crab.

This one was trying to hide.  He provided entertainment while we waited for our food.  Like scrambled around on the table wondering where his sandy beach was.

And then our dinner arrived!  Lobster.  And it was good!

Yummy!

Our beachfront dinner!

And a new arrangement for the trip back.  

This was a creepy walkway that pedestrians shared with cars.  It's not very wide as you can see the one headlight of the oncoming car.  Apparently its just the visitors who are concerned with the arrangement  - the school kids don't mind.

Speaking of creepy - Darren found a friend.

Me hanging out on the beach.  Everyone else took a dip. 

We had a couple of nights of family fun in the casino.  Nothing crazy, trust me.

Church, ahem, formal night.

And....

another lobster dinner!  

Yummy!

We had a wonderful time and were ready to get back to real life once the trip was over.  Real life minus having to cook and clean that is....